1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink cartridge. More particularly, the present invention relates to an ink cartridge having flow channels fabricated separately by means of module and then assembled to the body.
2. Description of Related Art
Inkjet printing technique has been widely used in the office equipments having the function of printing graphics. Inkjet printing technique mainly uses a high pressure produced by a printhead (inkjet chip) to push ink instantly. Ink drops are then jetted from the printhead onto a surface of a document so as to form ink dots which form graphics or texts on the surface of the document.
In order to supply ink to the printhead, the ink cartridge has an ink chamber for storing ink and a flow channel for guiding the ink in the ink chamber to the printhead. As for a single ink cartridge supplying multiple colors of ink, the ink of each color has an independent ink chamber and an independent flow channel.
One of the several methods of fabricating cartridges in the conventional arts is to integrate ink chambers and flow channels as a whole by molding, and then sealing one side of the flow channels with a cover plate. However, the mold design of the ink cartridge in such method will be more difficult, resulting in the increase of the fabricating cost of the ink cartridge. The method is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,178 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,811,250.
Therefore, the Taiwan Patent No. I 259806 entitled “Ink Cartridge” has disclosed a technique of fabricating the ink chambers and the flow channels of the ink cartridge separately and then assembling them, which facilitates reducing the fabricating cost of the ink cartridge.
FIG. 1A is a perspective exploded view of a conventional ink cartridge obtained from a view angle. FIG. 1B is a perspective exploded view of the conventional ink cartridge of FIG. 1A obtained from another view angle. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the ink cartridge 100 includes a body 110 and a channel module 120. The body 110 has three ink chambers 112a, 112b, and 112c and three ink delivery ports 116a, 116b, and 116c. The ink delivery ports 116a, 116b, and 116c are located at the bottom of the body 110, and the ink chambers 112a, 112b, and 112c respectively fluidly communicate with the ink delivery ports 116a, 116b, and 116c, so that the ink in the ink chambers 112a, 112b, and 112c is supplied to the channel module 120.
The channel module 120 has three flow channels 122a, 122b, and 122c. The ink chambers 112a, 112b, and 112c respectively fluidly communicate to the flow channels 122a, 122b, and 122c by the ink delivery ports 116a, 116b, and 116c on the bottom. The flow channels 122a, 122b, and 122c farther respectively have three ink supply ports 124a, 124b, and 124c in a chip bonding area R, such that the ink is output to the printhead (inkjet chip) on the chip bonding area R.
The channel module 120 is attached to the bottom of the body 110 by means of ultrasonic welding, laser welding, or adhesive coating. No matter before or after the attaching, in order to locate the channel module 120 onto the bottom of the body 110, two blocks 118a and 118b of the body 110 are respectively engaged with two indentations 128a and 128b of the channel module 120, such that the channel module 120 is located at the bottom of the body 110.
However, by using the blocks 118a and 118b and the indentations 128a and 128b to locate the body 110 and the channel module 120, only one side (adjacent to the left side of FIG. 1B, or referred to as the front end of the channel module 120) of the channel module 120 can be located, and the other side of the channel module 120 (adjacent to the right side of FIG. 1B, or referred to as the back end of the channel module 120) can swing. Therefore, whether the location is accurate after assembling should be inspected by a measurement tool with at least a two-dimensional level. If the swing is serious, the yield of attachment between the channel module 120 and the body 110 is poor. Therefore, in order to prevent the swing of the channel module 120, one method is to fit the blocks 118a and 118b with the indentations 128a and 128b by means of interference.
However, when the blocks 118a and 118b and the indentations 128a and 128b are fitted by means of interference, stress will be concentrated on a junction between the blocks 118a and 118b and the indentations 128a and 128b. If the ultrasonic welding method is used to attach the channel module 120 to the body 110, the ultrasonic energy will be concentrated at the position where stress is concentrated, so the yield of attachment between the channel module 120 and the body 110 is reduced.